Incorporation of bio-based 1,5-pentanediol to fabricate thermoplastic elastomers with high resilience and biodegradability

In this paper, we present a direct synthesis method for producing thermoplastic elastomer with high resilience and biodegradability by simply incorporating 1,5-pentanediol (PeDO), a bio-based monomer with odd carbon atoms, to poly(1,4-cyclohexandimethanol succinate), instead of using polyether soft segment. The incorporated PeDO is able to make the crystalline and amorphous regions of the copolyester reach an equilibrium at molar content of 40 %, resulting in novel thermoplastic elastomer with remarkable resilience (shape recovery ratio over 70 % at 200 % strain), exceptional mechanical (elongation at break over 1200 %). Meanwhile, it has excellent thermal stability and biocompatibility. Unlike traditional thermoplastic polyether ester elastomers that are difficult to degrade, this elastomer also possesses excellent degradability, with a mass loss of 100 % after a 6 days degradation in enzyme solution at 37 °C. This study developed a novel, concise, and efficient construction method for the fabrication of thermoplastic polyester elastomers based on thermoplastic semi-crystalline polyester, without using polyether soft segment, thus obtain novel and sustainable thermoplastic elastomers with good biodegradability and biocompatibility.